Stormy weather knocks out power to sections of Hampden, Hampshire counties

SPRINGFIELD — A fast-moving thunderstorm that rolled through western Massachusetts Monday morning downed trees, swamped roadways and knocked out power to several hundred customers in Hampden, Hampshire and Berkshire counties. The storm also was blamed for sparking a house fire in Springfield.

National Grid of Massachusetts reported that about 175 regional customers were still without power at that hour, though the company estimated electricity would be restored in Franklin County, where only a handful were without power, by 11:30 a.m. and in Hampden County by noontime. The situation in Hampshire County, where 81 outages were reported — including 71 in Belchertown alone — was still being assessed, according to National Grid.

The utility company reported that only 15 customers in Franklin County and 79 in Hampden County, nearly all of which were in Wilbraham, were affected by the outages.

WMECO indicated that about 1,849 customers were still without power by late morning, down from a high of around 2,370 reported just after the storm struck. Longmeadow led the pack with about 430 reported outages, followed by 352 in Agawam, 272 in Ludlow and around 112 in Springfield. In the Berkshires, about 710 customers in Becket and 139 in Washington were left in the dark this morning.

WMECO's website did not indicate when power would be restored, but the number of affected customers continued to dwindle as the morning wore on.

A 3-story home on Dartmouth Street in Springfield's historic McKnight neighborhood caught fire after it was struck by lightning around 8:30 a.m. Monday. The fire, which was quickly extinguished, caused damage to the top floor of the house.

A tree fell into the northbound lane of Interstate 91 near Exit 3 in Springfield just before 9 a.m., according to state police from the Springfield barracks. The downed limb caused traffic to back up as crews attempted to clear the road, which was back to normal by about 9:30 a.m. There were no reported injuries, police said.